Best baseball writers?

Bodley has scoops? I'm legitimately asking since I don't read USAT.

Used to be he'd have stuff when MLB wanted to use his forum to plant something.

 

Yes...that's what counts as a "scoop" for Hal. The reason you read him is that he's where the official story is planted, so you get some insight on the MLB position. The best baseball guy at USA Today is Nightengale.

 

Jonah Keri.
Paul White.
(Two completely different kinds of writing, but both good at their thing.)
Gammons, back about a decade or two ago when he had an editor.

 

Lines like these are why I enjoy Renck so much:

He opened with a six-pitch first, had just 62 after six. Without the benefit of HDTV, it was hard to determine if he broke a sweat.

AND

All Lopez did was make pitches, working as if he had 5 o'clock reservations at The Chop House.

They are entertaining. They aren't overly cheesey. They are short. And the second one is not "new" to writing, but Renck uses them sparingly and smartly.

 

I don't read much outside of Toronto and for me the best guy up here is Jeff Blair of the Globe & Mail. Richard Griffin of the Star is a solid read too. Bob Elliott of the Sun usually has some good stuff in his Sunday notebook but I find him so-so as a writer.

 

Last I checked, the Yankees and Red Sox are both on the East Coast. My problem with Verducci is that he seems to focus on them at the expense of the rest of baseball. I'm neither a Yankees fan nor a Red Sox fan.

 

I'll second Troy Renck and Barry Svrluga.

 

The new guy or the old guy from last year?

 

the old guy

 

I like the new guy's stuff, too.

 

I'm biased, but I'm a big fan of Jorge Arangure. I think you're going to be reading a lot from him in the future.